This wonderful documentary is about the avant garde filmmaker who led the independent film scene way back in the '40s. I have been an obsessed fan of Maya Deren since I first saw her seminal "Meshes of the Afternoon" when I was a kid. I won this documentary in a contest Zeitgeist Films had where they asked an obscure trivia question about her. I can't remember the question, but I remember winning.
This portrait of her and her films and those that knew her is by filmmaker Martina Kudlacek, it's based on the book "The Legend of Maya Deren" and uses footage from Deren's films, interviews and observances from Stan Brakhage, Amos Vogel, Anthology Film Archives’ Executive Director Jonas Mekas, and others. The soundtrack is by John Zorn.
One of my favorite scenes is of Jonas Mekas standing in his famous East Village, New York City Anthology Film Archives holding spools of 16mm film preserved in old Stella D’Oro coffee cans.
Born in Kiev in 1917, and known best for her work in experimental film, she was also a poet, a dancer, a choreographer, a dancer, a writer, a photographer, an ethnographer and knew Voodoun very well. Her book on Voodoo, "Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti" is very interesting!
She died October 13, 1961.
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